Apple has hit out at Microsoft over the company’s claim that the term “App Store” is generic, stating that the Redmond-company is “missing the forest for the trees”, in its assertion that the public refers to an app marketplace on each individual mobile ecosystem app platform using the same term. If you were not aware of the case, Microsoft’schallengefollowed Apple’s attempts to trademark the term, registering with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to prevent other companies and rival application marketplaces from being able go under the same heading....

Apple has reportedly begun placing orders with several of its key suppliers to produce its next-generation iPhone, awaiting shipments of a new “thinner and lighter” handset that will possess an 8-megapixel camera. The Wall Street Journal saysthat sources have indicated that Apple will utilise Qualcomm’s wireless baseband chips, moving away from chips manufacturered by German firm Infineon Technologies AG. It is not known whether Apple will continue to use Samsung memory chips, especially now it is fighting the Korean vendor in the courts for copying its devices....

You don’t see Apple in the news very often on the subject of charity. It’s one of those things that, if it happens, it happens very quietly. But today that’s changing somewhat, as we’ve managed to get wind of an internal memo for a new Apple employee program,courtesy of MacRumors. The memo, sent out by CEO Tim Cook, details a program whereby Apple will begin matching donations that its employees give to charitable organizations:...

A recent interview with the cast of Two And A Half Men has revealed that Ashton Kutcher is quite influential with staff at Apple; so much so that the company internally refers to the Shortcuts feature in its upcoming iOS 5 firmware upgrade as “The Kutcher”. We know Shortcuts as the iOS equivalent of TextExpander on the Mac, a tool that will recognise inputted strings of text and replace them with a pre-specified phrase or sentence....

At its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) last year, Apple announced that it’ll allow you tosign in to websites on Safari using Face ID and Touch ID. This year, the company is taking this tech a step further by introducing passwordless sign-ups. In a developer session titled“Move beyond passwords,”Apple unveiled a new tech called Passkeys that’ll allow you to sign up for services without any passwords. Here’s how it’ll work: when you visit a website supporting this new tech, you’ll enter your desired username during registration, and then use Face ID or Touch ID — instead of a password — to authenticate yourself....